Fun Friday: Larry King Edition

I was going to post Zero Punctuation's review of Zack and Wiki, but then I found something way cooler. One of my friends at work created Larry King, including his entrance and custom move set, in SmackDown! vs. RAW '08 for a television interview between himself and WWE stars, including Vince McMahon and Triple H. The highlights are quite funny. You can also see more of the action here with commentary from the man himself.

Fun Friday: Spoiled for Choice Edition

This week saw a lot of great videos come through my reader. It was hard to choose, so I made all my favorite videos of the week available in my new shared links section. Posted below is probably my favorite of the lot; someone recreated the opening overworld and first dungeon from The Legend of Zelda using the level editor in N+. Not only is this an exercise in dedication, it's one of the most awesome things I;have ever seen.

Fun Friday: Late, Late Edition

Not only am I late to post my Fun Friday from last week but the following video is pretty old. Oh well, I just saw it for the first time last week. It was apparently banned. I guess finger pointing is terrible and will make terrorists of us all or something. I like it because my friends and I use to play "guns" until the street lights came on and we had to be home. And that's what Live is all about, right? Having fun.

R.I.P. - My Xbox360

3/21/2006-3/17/2008

I was in denial, but this day finally came. Your life must have flashed before eyes much like the three red rings flashed before mine. You are survived by an unused DS and a dusty PSP. You will be missed...

but never forgotten. :'(

Free Street Fighter 2 HD Beta (Commando 3 Purchase Required)

Capcom will be providing an eight week, online beta for the highly anticipated Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. Sounds awesome, what's the catch? You have to purchase Capcom's other upcoming XBLA title, Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 for $10.

You remember Commando on the NES, right? I still have my copy. It was a top down, vertical scrolling shooter (I vaguely remember it being fun, but it has been a while) that is also getting an upgrade in this new age of digital distribution gaming.

I can think of two other high profile instances of this tactic: Crackdown with the Halo 3 beta and Zone of the Enders with the Metal Gear Solid 2 demo. This tactic of packaging demos of highly anticipated games with second tier games is an intriguing one. On one hand, the full game sells really well. On the other, despite the game's critical and fiscal reception, the series usually dies pretty quickly. Usually when games sell as well as these, sequels are usually in order. Crackdown doesn't seem to be getting one any time soon and, while Zone of the Enders 2 did arrive, it sales were much lower. Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 will probably suffer the same fate, as I don't think nostalgia is as strong as many other Capcom properties. Now, if they packaged this with the Bionic Commando remake, I'd be sold in a heartbeat.

Dead Space to Pause After All

I previously blogged that EA upcoming space-horror game, Dead Space, will forgo a pause feature. Well, it turns out that the game will have pause after all. Glen Schofield cleared the hole subject up in an interview on MTV's Multiplayer Blog:

I was saying that in a game like ‘Resident Evil,’ you pause and you go into your menu. So if you’re in the middle of a fight, you can stop the fight, give yourself more ammo, and change your weapon. What I was saying is that took me out of the moment. ‘Resident Evil Evil’ is a great game.” You won’t be able to do that stuff in the “Dead Space” pause menu. “[What] I was saying is you don’t pause to grab your ammo. You better ammo up before you begin your fight. Because you can’t really be safe. [The combat] is happening live and in real time. The reason for me is that adds tension, because people are saying, ‘S—, I’ve got to get more ammo. I’ve got to get more health.’ That’s what you want in a survival horror game. We’re not going to make that incredibly difficult. You may have to back away from the fight. We’re just trying to make you think out a little bit more.

Wow, real time ammo loading and health management, where have we seen this before? (Call of Duty, Halo, Bioshock, Condemned, Kingdom Hearts, etc., etc., etc.) I liked it better when Dead Space was going to be innovative and try something new. Oh well.

Best Idea for the Wii Balance Board Yet

We were in deep philosophical discussion at work the other day about our upcoming cheerleader game and it's usage of the Wii Balance Board when one of my co-workers suggested the best idea I have heard yet for this upcoming peripheral. Image the following scene:

It's been a wild night of crazy drinking and heated contests of Wii Sports Bowling and Boxing. It's getting late and your guests are starting to entertain the idea of calling it a night. But you are a responsible host and strictly forbid anyone who has too much to drink to drive them self home.

What are you to do?!??

Fire up your copy of Wii Sobriety and connect the Wii Balance Board. Your guests will be having so much fun competing in mini-games simulating all of your favorite field sobriety tests, that party may just keep on raging into the night!

We can all have a dream, right? Someone needs to get on top of this for WiiWare STAT!

Fun Friday: Condemned is Back Edition

I'm very excited that the sequel to Condemned is releasing soon. The first game is one of the only games that actually scared me, especially the level in the department store and the farm house. The new game looks good as it expands on the hand to hand combat and the forensic stuff, but the inclusion of multiplayer seems to be a stretch for the genre. We'll see how it turns out soon enough. In the mean time, enjoy the current television spot that is pretty creepy in its own right.

Insert Foot in Mouth Week

There seems to be a running theme for developer quotes this week. Firstly, Greg Donovan, Producers for Saint's Row 2, lowered every ones expectations by reminding us that the game "won't be bug free" since no game is. Working in QA, I know the truth far too well on the bugs that get through to the final product but stating this up front is not getting off on the right foot.

Not to worry though, because Spark CEO Craig Allen one upped Donovan by telling us why most of us don't like his game, Turing Point: Fall of Liberty.

Turning Point, the idea there was really a high concept idea. I think that we're finding that the people who look at it like, "Is this going to be fun, something I can drop into, in a world I haven't seen before and have a good time?" really love the game. People that are looking at it with more of a critical eye of "Is this game revolutionary, is it doing play mechanics I've never seen before, is it driving new technology?" it was never meant to do those things. If people look at it in the right way, I think they really enjoy what they see. You can certainly look at it and say it's not revolutionary, so those opinions are certainly a lot more critical.

I guess that explains why I didn't like the demo at all. Not only am I not smart enough to get the concept but this first person shooter is not for core gamers. Duh!!!

Play it Now!

It what seems like a “you-should-have-done-this-long-ago” moment, Capcom and Nintendo have teamed up to add a demo for Zack and Wiki to its official website in Europe. I have almost completed the full game and have loved every minute of it so far. While I have trouble seeing the usefulness of the Wii Remote in many other games, including Nintendo's stalwarts Mario and Zelda, the functionality really shines in Zack and Wiki. There is no doubt in my mind that this is a must own in the Wii library and I can only hope that Capcom continues the franchise and other try to emulate it.

Can we have a Monkey Island game on the Wii now, please? Thank you.

Dexter to Grace Consoles

My wife believes I have a very, very unhealthy obsession with Dexter. It’s not that I identify with the questionable morals and rules developed by a cop who moonlights as a killer serial killer, I think the acting and writing are top notch and is one of only three or four shows that can actually keep me engaged for long enough to sit through them (Lost, Heroes, and my guilty pleasure, NCIS, are the other ones). It’s dark and demented for sure, but it also deals with some very real issues of how people deal with relationships and what is right and wrong. Now, Mark Ecko is teaming with Showtime to make a game based on the series.

In a clear sign that people are running out of ideas or feel the need to make a game out of everything, I can only ask, why? There is no way a good game can be made from the source material here. I can see it now: the game play revolves around stalking your prey and gathering evidence in order to prove his or her guilt of evil, somewhat reminiscent of Assassin’s Creed. Then, after a quick mini game of covering a room in plastic, the mark is stealthily tracked until an opportune moment arrives and you bury a needle in their neck. This is followed by another mini game in which a blood sample is taken from their face for a collection and then the body is systematically chopped up into little pieces. Each level is completed with a jaunt on Dexter’s boat to dispose of the body in the Atlantic Ocean. Dexter then brings donuts to all his coworkers to celebrate his successful night! The only problem being the furor that would erupt from a certain unscrupulous lawyer who would see the inherent murder simulation and a news channel that has less moral ambiguity than Dexter himself.

No details are known at this point but it’s probably a safe bet that it will fall somewhere between The Sopranos game and the new Lost: Via Domus game. Showtime should go back to what they do best; producing one of the best shows on television (and bring us a new season sooner than later). Mark Ecko should go back to what he does best; I don’t know what that is but it’s not making games.

In the Shoes of an Assassin

After completing Assassin’s Creed, I spent some time reflecting on the game. Inspired by Greg Costikyan’s call for critiques instead of reviews and Michael Abbot's article "Critics Don't Need Thumbs," I tried to explore the game’s goals and how well it succeeded. The game, outside of the eternal battle of differing world views between the Templars and the Assassins, the game play attempts to place the player in the shoes of an assassin. Is the game as repetitive as many reviewers suggest or did they succeed in exploring a day in the life of an assassin?

The biggest knock Assassin’s Creed has garnered from reviewers has been the repetitive nature leading up to each assassination. There are only five different missions that allow Altair to acquire Intel: pickpocket, eavesdrop, interrogation, flag collection and minor assassinations. For all of the main assassinations, some or all of these missions must be completed with little deviation in game play from the first time they are introduced.

Yet isn’t this the job of a successful and professional assassin? While I’m not an assassin myself (or am I?), it seems the most successful assassinations occur after careful, deliberate planning and information gathering. While the game will allow the player to partake in an assassination after completing only two Intel missions, this leaves the player entering the situation woefully blind and no clear idea of where the enemy will be or the best escape route. It is to the player’s best interest to take his time and gather as much information as possible and be prepared. This slow pace builds on the stealth game play in the Splinter Cell and the Hitman series by allowing the player to engage the enemy from the open or amongst a crowd while crafting an escape on the fly. The life of an assassin is in the shadows, striking when the enemy least expects it. Altair is the antithesis of Kratos or Marcus Fenix, who enter a situation with blades swinging or guns blazing and little regard for what or who is in the way. The game rewards those patient enough to complete this planning with a satisfying final blow back before the target knows what happened. In the end, a successful kill has forced the player to walk a mile in the shoes of a deadly assassin which is repetitive, but satisfying, due to its deliberate nature.

Fun Friday: Sunday Comics Edition

People's anger towards video games and their connection to violence can seem misguided at best to us gamers. It makes sense when you put this way.